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\nLIVE on www.billabongpro.com or www.aspworldtour.com<\/p>\n
THURSDAY 11 MAY, 2006
\nTEAHUPOO, TAHITI<\/p>\n
BILLABONG PRO TAHITI
\n4-16 MAY 2006<\/p>\n
\nLIVE on www.billabongpro.com or www.aspworldtour.com<\/p>\n
With swell conditions being almost identical to yesterday, organisers of the Billabong Pro Tahiti have jumped at the chance to send out the guys for the remaining heats of round three today. <\/p>\n
With flawless two metre (four to six feet) waves thundering through the world renowned location that is Teahupoo expect to see some incredible surfing action when the best of the best hit the water at around 7.30am local time.DAY OF DRAMA AT BILLABONG PRO TAHITI<\/p>\n
It was edge of the seat action in almost every heat today at the Billabong Pro Tahiti, as top seeds were eliminated and underdogs prevailed in amazing, two metre (six foot) and flawless Teahupoo barrels. <\/p>\n
With two heats still to be run in round four and heading into the quarter-finals, there are only two competitors from last year\u0092s Foster\u0092s ASP Men\u0092s World Tour top 10 remaining in the event \u0096 Kelly Slater (USA) and CJ Hobgood (USA). <\/p>\n
So good was the day, that event commentator, big-wave legend and former Foster\u0092s ASP Men\u0092s World Tour competitor, Mike Parsons called it \u0093\u0085 the best day for competitive surfing he has ever seen at this location\u0094, so close and so spectacular were the bulk of the heats. <\/p>\n
Among the many highlights from the day\u0092s play, none were better than the explosive heat of round four heat five, between Andy Irons (HAW) and Dean Morrison (AUS) which went down late in the afternoon. <\/p>\n
Irons, who is considered one of, if not the best surfer at the break, was ousted by Morrison literally in the final seconds of the heat, when Morrison scored an 8.50 after free-falling into a beefy Teahupoo tube. <\/p>\n
Irons, who launched himself into the second wave of the set, which was a bigger and even better wave, was \u0093spat\u0094 into the channel in front of Morrison and made a \u0093shot gun\u0094 gesture at Morrison believing he had done enough to win the encounter when he scored a 9.50. <\/p>\n
Adding to the drama wass the fact that Irons had actually snapped his board right before the end of the heat and had to race into the lineup for his last wave.<\/p>\n
While both surfers were sitting in the channel, with Morrison congratulating the three-time world champion for his assumed victory, it was announced that it would be Morrison and not Irons who would progress through to the quarter finals.<\/p>\n
\u0093I knew I had a good wave at the end there and after the heat I asked a mate whether my wave was as good as Andy\u0092s,\u0094 said Morrison. \u0093He told me that Andy\u0092s wave was a bit better and I instantly thought that he had won. I then did a bit of math in my head and I realised for him to win he needed a score that was a point and a half more than mine. <\/p>\n
\u0093At this time he had come off his wave and he shot gunned me to rub in the fact that he\u0092d won and I went up and congratulated him because the results hadn\u0092t been announced and we were still thinking he\u0092d won. <\/p>\n
\u0093I was just glad at that stage that I\u0092d put in a good showing. They announced that I\u0092d won and I didn\u0092t hear it at first and then they said it again and I said to him \u0091I think I won\u0092. We then realised the outcome and he was really humble about it and congratulated me.\u0094<\/p>\n
Morrison was full of praise for his counterpart and was more amazed that he had beaten Irons for the second year in a row in the same round of the same event.<\/p>\n
\u0093To me he is the greatest surfer out here,\u0094 said Morrison. \u0093No one even touches him and for me to beat him twice is a huge thing for me and I\u0092m just extremely stoked.\u0094<\/p>\n
In a heat one of round four, which turned out to be the highest scoring match-up of the day, Damien Hobgood (USA) and Fred Patacchia (USA) didn\u0092t just push the limits\u0085 they smashed them. <\/p>\n
The highly dramatic heat had both competitors pitted deep inside the barrel on some of the biggest and best waves of the day. <\/p>\n
Going blow for blow the lead swapped and changed as both surfers registered scores at the high end of the 10 point wave score maximum. <\/p>\n
Hobgood locked in a 9.77 to claim the lead, then shortly after Patacchia upped the ante and locked in 9.90 and came home with the bacon. <\/p>\n
\u0093I knew that we were going to have a pretty solid heat if there were waves,\u0094 said Patacchia. \u0093Myself and Damien actually had two 9.0s in our heat last year here and he beat me, so it was basically a crapshoot. My hat goes off to him because he is an amazing surfer.\u0094<\/p>\n
On Patacchia\u0092s 9.90, the top score of the event to date, the nuggetty Hawaiian spectacularly pushed himself deep into a tube and wrestled with the foam ball.<\/p>\n
\u0093I needed a score, I was still in second with a 9.7, so I pushed myself as deep as possible down the peak,\u0094 said Patacchia. \u0093I tried to take off as late as possible so I could get really as deep in the barrel as I could. I was riding the foam ball for a little bit and it was a little sketchy, but I stood my ground and told myself, \u0091If you make this wave you\u0092ll win the heat, if you don\u0092t you won\u0092t, but at least you\u0092re in this one, at least you\u0092ve got the chance and there\u0092ll be now what ifs.\u0092\u0094<\/p>\n
For seven-time Foster\u0092s ASP Men\u0092s World Tour champion Kelly Slater, his first win today in round three was a nail biting affair where local hot shot Heiarri Williams went within a whisker of sending Slater packing his bags for home. <\/p>\n
Cheered on by a massive support group floating in numerous types of watercraft in the channel, Williams\u0092 local knowledge came to the fore and he instantly had his superstar rival playing catch-up after scoring an incredibly deep tube ride on a wave of about two metres (six feet) high. <\/p>\n
Slater is notorious for lifting his game in the face of adversity and it was no different here today as he managed to rise to the occasion to post a total of 18.74 over Williams\u0092 17.36. <\/p>\n
Taking off deep on waves and using his unique stalling technique of pressing his body into the wave face, the Floridian kept striking back at whatever Williams threw at him and while Williams was within striking distance in the 30 minute encounter Slater actually was in front for the whole affair. <\/p>\n
\u0093He\u0092s a specialist out here and I\u0092m sure he\u0092ll be in this event for many years to come,\u0094 said Slater. \u0093I had to pay attention there. There\u0092s not a lot I could do. He had a couple of really good waves that he fell on, I think he was trying to get a little deeper than he needed to. But he kept himself in the heat. I got two 9.17s and that would have put most guys in a combination situation, but I was just sitting there hoping no waves came, no sets.\u0094 <\/p>\n
Slater then progressed through to take on Danny Wills (AUS) in round four. While this heat was a little more in Slater\u0092s favour it was a challenge given that the wind had come in from on onshore direction.<\/p>\n
“It\u0092s not too often you\u0092re just doing turns out at Teahupoo with a 10-day waiting period,\u0094 said Slater. <\/p>\n
Also powering through to round four was wildcard Hira Teriinatoofa (PYF) who added another big-name notch to his belt when he took out Joel Parkinson (AUS). <\/p>\n
His local knowledge came to the fore as he gracefully glided down the butter-smooth faces on offer. <\/p>\n
And while Parkinson didn\u0092t hand over the prize easily \u0096 he held the lead for the bulk of the early part of the heat \u0096 Teriinatoofa\u0092s wave magnet was turned up to the max as like in early round heats the waves just went straight to him. <\/p>\n
Speaking about his more seasoned rivals, Teriinatoofa will has been going into the event with a no fear approach.<\/p>\n
“I have no fear at all,\u0094 said Teriinatoofa. \u0093It\u0092s just a matter of the ocean and you and thirty-minutes. The guy who gets the best waves is going to make the heat, doesn\u0092t matter if you are a good surfer or not, catch the best waves and you\u0092ll to win.”<\/p>\n
Also being knocked out of the event in round three was Taj Burrow (AUS) who fell at the hand of another wildcard in Hawaiian Danny Fuller. <\/p>\n
With Slater having two tour wins under his belt so far, and with all of his closest rivals being eliminated, the door is now open for Slater to put a huge buffer between him and those rivals.<\/p>\n
Organisers are confident that the event will continue again at 7am sharp tomorrow.<\/p>\n
For all the results of round three and four head to www.billabongpro.com or www.aspworldtour.com and click on the results and media centre buttons. <\/p>\n
Remaining round four match-ups:<\/p>\n
Heat 7: Danny Fuller (Haw) vs Darren O\u0092Rafferty (Aus)
\nHeat 8: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs C.J. Hobgood (USA)<\/p>\n
Quarter Final match-ups<\/p>\n
Heat 1: Fred Patacchia (HAW) vs Hira Teriinatoofa (PYF)
\nHeat 2: Bruce Irons (HAW) vs Kelly Slater (USA)
\nHeat 3: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs Taylor Knox (USA)<\/p>\n
Yesterday onlookers were treated to some amazingly deep tube riding action as surfers scooted perilously close to the dry reef looming on the inside of the break. <\/p>\n
Today the focus will be on the local wildcards who, given their world beating performances in the early rounds, could potentially create some major upsets. <\/p>\n
Locals Heiarri Williams and Manoa Drollet, who have already caused some damage to the big names will be up against Kelly Slater (USA) and Andy Irons (HAW) respectively with the Irons\/Drollet matchup shaping to be the one to watch. <\/p>\n
In round one Drollet defeated Irons in controversial circumstances and Irons will be looking to take revenge here today.<\/p>\n
For all the live action make sure you tune in to www.aspworldtour.com or www.billabongpro.com <\/p>\n
A decision will be made at the end of the round (around 11am local time) regarding either completing the rest of the ladies event or to go on with men’s round four.<\/p>\n
The remaining heats of round three will include:<\/p>\n
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs Hira Terinatoofa (PYF)
\nHeat 5: Bruce Irons (HAW) vs Chris Ward (USA)
\nHeat 6: Mark Occhilupo (AUS) vs Tim Reyes (USA)
\nHeat 7: Travis Logie (ZAF) vs Danny Wills (AUS)
\nHeat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) vs Heiarri Williams (PYF)
\nHeat 9: Andy Irons (HAW) vs Manoa Drollet
\nHeat 10: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs Shaun Cansdell (AUS)
\nHeat 11: Taylor Knox (USA) vs Mikael Picon (FRA)
\nHeat 12: Greg Emslie (ZAF) vs Mick Lowe (AUS)
\nHeat 13: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs Danny Fuller (HAW)
\nHeat 14: Luke Stedman (AUS) vs Darren O\u0092Rafferty (AUS)
\nHeat 15: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs Jarrad Howse (AUS)
\nHeat 16: CJ Hobgood (USA) vs Victor Ribas (BRA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THURSDAY 11 MAY, 2006 TEAHUPOO, TAHITI BILLABONG PRO TAHITI 4-16 MAY 2006 LIVE on www.billabongpro.com or www.aspworldtour.com With swell conditions being almost identical to yesterday, organisers of the Billabong Pro Tahiti have jumped at the chance to send out the guys for the remaining heats of round three today. With flawless two metre (four to … Continue reading “BILLABONG PRO TEAHUPOO TAHITI IN EXCELLENT CONDITIONS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-surfing-news-archive","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17902,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470\/revisions\/17902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}